What a learning curve

Be Whole is a one-woman show. I recently had a guest feature on the blog and would love to share more insightful content from others so if you have a topic that you’d like me to feature or re post, leave me a comment in the space below or email me directly to robyn@bewhole.co.za.

Blog tips

There’s is so much useful information out here. If you’re an aspiring blogger who could use some tips on how to get started, you can get FREE, invaluable blogging advice from UK based bloggers, Sarah and Kevin Arrow – right now, via Sarah’s website. Or pop over to www.icanbuildablog.com by Dana Fox to get easy design and web developing tips that will make your blog look awesome.

Writing tips

Next year, I will be enrolling in a course by fellow blogger and USA pen pal, Janet Sunderland. She’s an exceptionally talented Writer and Author. Take a look at some of her reads, here.

Janet’s course, which I prefer not to delve into too much (but which you can already view on her website), will assist me in completing a special project that I’ve been longing to work on for a while.

You can watch hair tuts now too

A lot of what I post are questions that are posed via my social networks. Most questions are related to my diet and natural hair journey. Often, I’ve been asked to explain my hair maintenance methods, which has prompted me to create a Youtube channel where you can now watch my hair vlogs.

Please vote for Be Whole as 2016 Lifestyle Blog of Year by clicking on this badge below:

Also, Which blog category is your favourite? Recently, one of you had mailed me asking for more Eat Well posts as it’s simply her favourite section of Be Whole. I’d love to hear from you. Let’s get a conversation going below and don’t forget to vote 🙂

P.s. More tribe members are going natural!

Thank you so much for every like, comment, and share! It means the world to me.

Here’s to all the women who’d admire another woman from across the room, wondering which hair products she uses, how she gets her skin looking so smooth, or how much time it took her to perfect that look…

I am happy to announce my collaboration with Beauty Bulletin, South Africa’s largest beauty community and review club. I’ve always had an interest in beauty culture, and given that I’d spent a couple of years working as a beauty consultant during varsity, I know a thing or two about the industry. Sharing reviews on products comes easily. It’s a great cue for conversation and exciting when you’re sharing useful information. I love Beauty Bulletin’s concept of creating a large community of real women who embrace that they’re all equally beautiful and distinctly different.

Is this you?

I walk into public bathrooms and often smile at the ladies beside me – who are touching-up mascara, re-applying gloss, neatening stray hairs, or other small things that we go to the bathroom for, other than to pee. If I discover something beautiful about another woman, even if I’m standing in a shopping aisle, I won’t hesitate to compliment her. I’ve learned some of the most helpful beauty and hair tips from other women in public bathrooms and shopping aisles, and in the comment sections of blog posts, not in magazines, and much less from TV. Real women who don’t have on-hand make-up teams and in-house hair stylists, taught me tips and tricks just because they’re also women, and like me, they felt compelled to share something that could be useful for interest’s sake and self-esteem.

Tell me if you agree

There’s a desperate need for women in South Africa to break away from warped ideas of what it means to be beautiful. The latest Dove Real Beauty Survey conducted for South African women in 2013, showed that 45% of women agreed that their greatest beauty pressures came from themselves. Do you do it too? A lot of the time, when I become overly conscious about something like my hair not being in place or my face looking shiny, everyone else hadn’t even noticed until I’d brought it up.

“But how does it look? Are you sure?” “Yes. You look amazing”. – *Friends

Beauty emanates from a woman who feels it. As long as you feel beautiful, you are. This was validated for me when Clarins USA recently featured an Instagram photo of me, taken by photographer, Tony Maake. It wasn’t anything extravagant. My make-up was quite basic and I’d let my fluffy hair out of its usual, tight bun. I felt a little apprehensive during the photo shoot because, well, I’m not a model and I didn’t rehearse any kind of pose. Days after the shoot, when I saw the photo, I thought, “God, that’s actually me. No front.” And I love it so much that I’d asked Beauty Bulletin to update my existing photo to the one below: